In Fiber to the Home (FTTH) and Fiber to the Desk (FTTD) applications, a communication socket may serve as a terminal relay device for optical fibers and electrical cables (e.g. electrical cables, optical cables or coax cables). In the market, conventional communication sockets are installed on a wall surface in a premise or home. The communication sockets permit connection of pre-terminated optical fiber patch cords and electrical cables to the network optical fibers and electrical cables installed either in the walls or on the walls of a home or premise. Generally, the optical fiber connection requires three individual pieces, a fiber connector plug on the patch cord, a fiber connector plug on a fiber pigtail connected to the installed network optical cable, and a fiber connector socket. The fiber connector socket serves as a coupling between two optical connector plugs and protects the optical connection point. In contrast, electrical cable connections have a two part structure which include an electrical cable connector or plug which may be inserted into a jack or socket which is connected to the installed cable. Such communication sockets are popular with consumers and installers because of their convenient installation and flexible connection options.
However, existing communication sockets which are capable of accommodating both electrical and optical fiber connections are usually large, thus, can only be installed individually or mounted on a special wall-based box and can not be fitted together with a normal in-wall standard base box.
While wall-mounted communication sockets are known that accommodate a plurality of fiber and electrical cable connectors at the same time, they are too large to fit with current wall-based boxes (i.e. an 86 mm×86 mm standard wall-based box).
In contemporary premise network wiring, the optical fiber is connected to a fiber pigtail by a fusion or mechanical splice. In some cases, the splice point between optical fibers does not fit within the existing box and is therefore placed outside of the box. This results in the splice not having adequate protection or the incurring extra costs to add an addition box to protect the splice. Furthermore, conventional communications sockets are unable to provide an efficient solution which accommodates the splice in a compact size while also ensuring that the minimum bending radius of the optical fiber is not violated.
Accordingly, a communication socket that is adapted to the 86 mm×86 mm standard with the splicing point accommodated therein is needed to further expand FTTH and FTTD networks in the premise or home.